Best Extremities Poems
Introspection
suspends in dark blue amnion
as rainwater blooms a reflection pool
an oasis of energy for contemplative embryo;
in stillness I grow.. my pulse a flowing stream of raindrops
my body the rhythm maker
my mind the artiste
in a cocoon a rhythmic womb —
a primal nest gestates my om
b r e a t h i n g i n
b r e a t h i n g o u t
saturation of breath
soaks and stretches my cortex canvas;
within the indigo sphere
I paint a mural
upon my sacred temple walls
a self-portrait
with a benevolent brush dipped in starlight –
I surrender staying and portraying within the lines
uncaged colors roam
beyond my human extremities and Earth’s edge
a gouache-plash of teal and fuchsia
fraternize with fibers of flesh and marrow
conceiving abstracts as airy as sparrow dreams
as I - a mindful explorer flies an inner cosmos
beyond the confines of the canvas white
outside the frames of physicality and reality
to throw open window panes to the unlimited
to banish pains of the limited — free
my meditative spirit making art with the universe
Susan Ashley
September 7, 2022
~ Fifth Place ~
Premiere Contest: 2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 18
Sponsor: Mark Toney
~ First Place ~
Premiere Contest: Brian Strand Premiere Choice
Sponsor: Brian Strand
Photo: The Seer; Laurie Bain Hamilton - owner of primalpainter
Categories:
extremities, growth, introspection, love, self,
Form:
Free verse
you and i were the 'good kids'
only spoke when spoken to
never picked a fight
didn't color outside the lines
later we learned that they
were sifting through all our art
ascertaining who lay on the
extremities of the bell curve
who might have a troubled home life
and/or
who might have an aptitude for fine art
... we were somewhere in the middle
fast forward thirty years or so...
we discovered a magic quill
that served as a machete
clearing out the underbrush
of this dense jungle we call
life
we learned to think outside
the quadrilateral parallelogram
and found the outer rim
of that bell curve
we no longer raised our hands
waiting to be called on
we delved deep and found
a singular
phenomenon
inside us -
our voice
Categories:
extremities, voice, writing,
Form:
Free verse
II
And did his rash actions give this prince
Cause, in moments of troubling quietude,
To ruefully ponder on all which could not
Be rewound?
A lamentable lack of honourableness and
Uncemented fortitude
Which brought those crashing towers down;
An inevitability borne from the desperation
Of his passions...
So unlike her own desperate passions contained
Inside the hapless extremities of a single gaze.
Her obvious compliance; the tawdriness of this
Sordid contract enabling an old-fashioned
Demand for dutiful obedience...but still betrayed
By a resigned sort of hopelessness. The futility of a
Guilt; his schoolboy-pawing of the tensioned strap;
Your revulsion; his constant bolstering...the
Belittling with that inane, maddening, witless chat.
Categories:
extremities, conflict,
Form:
Rhyme
Scorching hot sun..
Sun rays omitting intense heat
The flames of fireballs ignite..
Desert air ..
So dry and still..
A cactus thrives in desert paradise..
Sands of time..
Heat soars to the sky by day..
By night the heat plummets..
Evaporates ..
Moonlight shines..
Drenched in coldness
Chilled air and a frosted moon..
Extremities exist..
Drastic changes occur..
Sands of time..
Time is constant and flowing..
Never ending..
Astronomical unlimited grains of sand in the desert..
A wonderland of vastness and abundance..
Like the grains of desert sand..
Infinity awaits us all..
As we are eternally divine..
Categories:
extremities, encouraging, endurance, nature, spiritual,
Form:
Free verse
Maybe the most deadly disease is just around our corner
Carried to our doorstep by an unsuspected foreigner
Ebola is lethal with a fatality rate that is extremely high
If infected you have a 70% probability that you will die
Incubation period can span from one to forty two days
If stricken, severe flu like symptoms will leave you in a daze
Most symptoms will appear 8 to 10 days after exposure
Bleeding from extremities will have you praying for closure
There is no cure, a strong immune system is your best defense
Why there is still air travel from Africa truly makes no sense
Predicted cases to be about 1.4 million by January next year
An epidemic like we never seen is upon us, that is very clear
If this dreadful virus makes it to your corner. beware!
If stricken with this affliction be diligent not to share
If this disease become airborne, many millions will succumb
Our world will be left in disarray and left feeling utterly numb
10/15/2014
*WHO changed the incubation period from 21 up to 42 days, be safe everyone.
Categories:
extremities, health, sick, truth,
Form:
Rhyme
MY ROBOT BENNY
I have a robot at home, his name is Benny,
Who is also, extremely office friendly.
He wakes me up every morning,
As a new day is dawning,
And taps my hand, ever so gently.
I wanted him dressed in a vibrant colour,
So he was delivered to me in red suited armour,
With extremities of a shiny silvery pallor!
He felt at home from the moment he came,
And loves us all, one and the same.
He is an excellent PA, none equal his talent,
And never sprouts arrant,
Nonsense, is always polite, cute and gallant
Keeps rigidly to a daily agenda,
And has been programmed to shed a tear
When he is feeling loving and tender!
His memory is incredibly large, Benny holds a
Phenomenal amount of data,
And has a robot girlfriend called Zeta!
He loves to impress and is rather vain,
Nobody would ever deign,
To outwit him, for he has a certain pout,
Again programmed, and beyond any doubt,
Has a capacity of many bytes
To flirt with the ladies in our office space,
As he twirls and spins, showing a
Blushing face!
What a special robot my Benny is, we have
Reached an era, a future phase
That dictates,
We will all soon adopt a Benny,
Who I have programmed to say
I love you Jenny!
Categories:
extremities, space,
Form:
Rhyme
Scrambling tooth and nail for a patterned fate
I approached the lofty mansion of Learning's Gate.
All cued up for a slip of paper - the one they call Degree,
halfway convinced that I hallucinated humanity.
For who under their own free will would venture
into this spiraling sameness:
this illustriously-in-debt, this Regal Club
of the Nameless?
I bellowed my voice into the air
(This great atrocity!).
But not a single student seemed to care:
So well fashioned they were,
adorned in their prized medals of mediocrity.
Along with their unwillingness to ever stray,
all too content to be but rainbows dreaming of gray.
I hung my head in such morose emptiness.
As I fashioned myself: the uniquely ubiquitous.
And what a fool I was to join the crowd - and yet so halfheartedly.
Striving for the cirrus clouds, the silver moon, and then the galaxy.
For my actions didn't match my cerebral creativity
I was statue still cursed with a meandering mind
(and other such extremities).
Exploding with hopes large enough for two
I sat clearly convinced languid leaps would do.
But one cannot daintily decide to dream the Dream
for it is merely the seed, another earthly deed.
You're not allowed to walk away, gandering as it grows,
for we are likened as the summer sun - keeping the rivers a'flow.
"Picturing profits in your hands
do not till the all too ready land"
explained the elderly gent with leathered palms,
"Someday soon you will understand."
And though we aim to be ourselves
gravity inevitably
brings us to the grid.
Imagination like a heavy rain;
we the paper people
so helplessly hid.
But fear not ye denizens
of the cherished cubbyhole:
where you keep under lock and key
your dust-laden soul.
If one burgeoning blunder
tore it all asunder
surely one single spirited spark
could heal even the most
dormant of hearts.
So fare thee well oh Cookie Cutter Coop -
Another day on that wretched plain, and I'd surely die.
I'm glad just to sever sameness in one fell swoop
by hanging on a star in the midnight sky.
NOTE: I always enjoyed using alliteration when I could... and with this particular one I went a little bit nutty... but I think it turned out okay.
Categories:
extremities, allegory, education, freedom, growing
Form:
Alliteration
Somnolence of sweet dreams.
These are given to be most combustible or tranquil.
Taken them in midday and midnight flights.
These truly are a delicate delight.
Now, soaring adoring and affixed with inner might.
Mortals dream to release a dove or hawk tonight.
To be exercised is our inside plight.
We have been given grace, mercy and divine inspiration,
to surpass these extremities in life.
If, we do not defer hope, we are able
to elevate ourselves to greater heights.
We only being bound by Earth’s invisible
gravitational atmospheric rights.
I feel, I see, I live, and yet, still possible to die.
We have an ethereal essence;
ours is an entity of intrinsic light.
A spiritual immortality given us at birth with foresight.
Our future already written on invisible scrolls for us to recite.
There are angel allies traversing multiple dimensions
of time and space to unite.
Winged warriors warring and winning
a contested celestial battle and fight.
I do ride upon golden and platinum colored
feathered wings of a very large eagle this very night.
This to win the battle of the imagined Enkro land
most lethal of sites.
The morning time abruptly commence.
I realize that I had been dreaming, to be
awakened by the dawn's early bright rays
of the sun refreshing and renewing sunlight.
Categories:
extremities, dream, emotions, imagination, inspirational,
Form:
Rhyme
Daggled and bloodied, the young man lay upon the ground where he’d been
left.. .left by vile men who, spurred by senseless hate and ravenous for a taste of
violence, had lured him with false fellowship and brought him to this secluded spot
by veil of darkened day. At first, they bound his arms, rendering him defenseless to
what was to ensue. After dragging him a small way from the back seat of their van,
they proceeded to pummel his stomach and his face, breaking his nose almost
instantly. When he stumbled to the ground, he received the heels of their boots as
they kicked at his extremities and then again, he received their cruel blows to his
stomach and face. When certain they had done enough damage so he would not
last a night in the cold, they spat on him and drove away.
As his attackers sat far away in a bar, drunk and boasting how they’d “done the
world a favor,” he’d already passed the stage of vomiting and gasping for his
breath. And though his brain was writhing with awful pain, with knowledge of his
sure obliteration, his chilled and broken body stayed inert. Reposed as if inside the
womb, he felt the ache receding, and before night’s shadows passed into the dawn,
his blood had stanched.
Now as flesh turns into carrion lying undiscovered in the dust, his spirit… never
quashed. . .cries out for justice.
Categories:
extremities, death
Form:
Prose Poetry
Critically injured
How deep the cut
Surely time would heal
A river of blood
From the wounds
Her sons lay dead in the fields
Extremities mangled
Conscience tormented
From sores that festered and burst
Bloated bodies
Stench of death
As bigoted hate was rehearsed
Reluctant surrender
Her fever broke
The physical damage immense
The worst had past
Was the belief
Final outcome remained in suspense
Her body blemished
By the scars
A never ending reminder
Emotional wounds
Linger and loom
Sadly she can't put behind her
an original poem by the "poemdog" Daniel Turner
Categories:
extremities, america, conflict, history, meaningful,
Form:
Rhyme
You ...
Burn fast in me
Searing like molten metal in my veins
Coursing my flesh with fiery magma, streaming
Each breath taken is more oxygen to feed the flames you ignite
Bones and marrow scorched with electric ferocity, afire
Core, being, skin, extremities, life itself - hot to the touch
For your steamy, torrid, id's sake alone, I light
Smouldering lava love speeds, leaving carnal chaos in its wake
Leveling all in its path with prurience, omnipotent
You are my hot drug, my spicy opiate
Imbued in an instance's consideration of your eyes
Or those plump, juicy fruits you call lips
Your streaked, heather tresses or satin dermis
Your curves and their sublime movements, defying gravity
Those hundred little places that quiver at the touch
I am addicted, and I drive you into my veins with reckless regard
Fast, searing, soul-pounding rushes of passion
That, in my best of minds and composure
I can never get enough of
And will surely die ...
In its grip.
~ 5th Place ~ in the "Your Amphetamine" Poetry Contest, Anthony Slausin, Judge & Sponsor.
Categories:
extremities, analogy, drug, love, metaphor,
Form:
Free verse
Across the countryside and into the grassland pastures;
inhabits the battle fields that segregate a Peony Rose.
Such as the gentle beauty of the rose that threatens those,
who are drawn to the undisturbed meadows of the divine,
and become caught in the thorn barb and twisted twine.
Coveted by the splendor of our sight,
we horde the natural beauty as it is our given right.
The Peony Roses are captivated in our possessive might.
The beauty must defend or to shatter and remain in a vibrant tatter.
For each life is to begin in the epoch,
of uncertainty, fruitless, and in a perilous world of bitterness.
As for all the desires to be fulfilled in the end of the epoch;
seeking meaning and clarity as their souls,
reaching for sweet unity.
In the courts,
man throws his mighty stick,
changing the rules, scheming a new trick.
See the weightless power of man
and the fear at hand that he brings.
In the churches,
the prayers of woman
in a quiet peace,
for a faithful praying
as she sings.
A vicious world with beauty,
hiding as a flower.
Attraction to peril in fury,
as we deviate from a greater power.
Was it a Greater Being’s perfect mistake,
or a beautiful mistake by elements of chance?
In the birth of creativity,
allowing mistakes to creep in.
Seeking the perfect form in nature,
while there is no true formality.
Living with these two extremities,
of the hot desert summers days
and the cold arctic winter nights.
The Peony rose hiding away in the sun rays,
and sleeps under the distant star lights.
Vanity or our pride of youth,
we become prisoners of our own devise.
Dreaming of tomorrow as a given truth.
Selfish thoughts we never considered unwise,
we desire for the things we can never own.
We covet what we see
The beauty we can never be.
The danger of the rose.
The aggressions of a Man
and the tenderness of a Woman
can be read by the hardness of his hands
and the softness of her touch.
Is it the end of a gentle beauty of the rose,
To look at her pedals, smell her sent,
feel her touch,
and still be pained by his thorns in the stem?
Categories:
extremities, introspection, social, world, beauty,
Form:
Rhyme
From my experience anyway
the face of a clock is generally
the face or faces of loved ones
hands~ our contribution of little
extremities that grow, fingers into grips,
arms into outside reaches not limited
to 12 -- like Christ~ the 13th
hearts, from single dwellings,
into villages, worlds and universes
from knowing self and significant
others, into intimate knowledge of
living Catechism...a personal, relatable
Thesaurus of God….
Let the pendulum swing
the gears turn
the crystal vibrate its warmth
the heart pulse from instinctive
memory toward the greater science of
eternal spirit
one is the journey to many
and all
the limitless truth of
Our Being One….
Categories:
extremities, christian, faith, family, inspirational,
Form:
Free verse
I’m livin’ the reality as fantasies haunt me
With butterfly thoughts like fantasies serene
The reality I’m livin’ is so overwhelming
So let the truth hurt while I live in this fantasy
So Imma live with Wonka in the chocolate factory
Reality’s incomplete as it kneels down on one knee
Proposing to me at a chance on life
But fantasy in my ear beggin’ me to be wife
I’m on this emotional roller coaster with reality
Tryin’ to face myths of “ The Fantasy Extreme”
Extremities of fantasies read the thoughts of my body
As reality sinks in consuming my soul’s mind….legally probably
I dream with fantasy only to wake up to reality
They say in reality dreams come true at the scene
But I wonder if they know that fantasy fulfills my lustful needs
When reality is boring and I just don’t wanna dream
So I guess since fantasy is fiction I can’t do nothin’ with it…
I’ll just keep writing on this path of Non-fiction
Cause at least with reality…when I speak…you listen
Written by Aleasha Martin
Categories:
extremities, confusion, life,
Form:
Rhyme
As the sun sets on the lone elm tree.
Its' silhouette looks upon me.
I believe it’s speaking quietly,
Whispering with its gentle breeze.
Telling me, to approach and see,
How my extremities are similar to thee.
Caught in amazement, yet stuck in beauty.
In the presence of an 80 year old tree.
I ask myself, who am I to be,
Strong, respected, but most importantly?
When actually, who am I not to be?
This tree is strong, respected, and important i.e.
It gives us these aspects unconsciously.
And we too are capable of possessing the-
Strong qualities of the Survivor Tree,
From its’ symbol of strength in OKC.
Surviving the blast of our history.
____________________
The Survivor Tree survived,
The blast on April 19, 1995.
http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org
Categories:
extremities, historytree, tree, , memorial,
Form:
Monorhyme